Abstract

Emerging flux regions (EFRs) are seen as magnetic concentrations in the photosphere of the Sun. From a theoretical point of view, the EFRs are formed in the convection zone and then emerge because of magnetic buoyancy (Parker instability) to the solar surface. During the formation process of EFRs, merging and cancellation of different polarities occur, leading to various configurations of the magnetic field. Often, EFRs are visible in the chromosphere in form of magnetic loops loaded with plasma, which are often called “cool loops” when seen in the chromosphere along with dark fibrils and they can reach up to the corona. Nowadays, we refer to them as an arch filament system (AFS) which connects two different polarities. The AFSs are commonly observed in several chromospheric spectral lines. A suitable spectral line to investigate chromospheric features and particularly AFSs is the He I 10830 Å triplet. The new generation of solar telescopes and instruments such EST and DKIST, will allow us to record very high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution observations necessary to investigate the dynamics, magnetic field, and characteristics of AFSs. These observations will help us to answer many open questions related to flux emergence such: (1) What are the observational consequences of the emerging flux? (2) How do EFRs evolve with time in the different layers of the solar atmosphere and how are these layers linked? (3) Is it possible to measure the height difference between the photosphere and the chromosphere connected by the legs of the AFSs?

Abstract

A major goal for NASA's human spaceflight program is to send astronauts to the Moon and beyond in the coming decades. The first missions would focus on exploration of the Moon with the intent of developing the technologies and capabilities to then proceed on to Mars.

However, there are many objects that show promise as future destinations beyond the Moon, which do not require the extensive mission capabilities or durations required for Mars exploration. These objects are known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and would undoubtedly provide a great deal of technical and engineering data on spacecraft operations for future human space exploration and serve as stepping stones for NASA’s efforts to reach Mars. A subset of these objects has been identified within the ongoing investigation of the NASA Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS).

Information obtained from a human investigation of a NEO, together with ground-based observations and prior spacecraft investigations of asteroids and comets (e.g., Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx), will provide a real measure of ground truth to data obtained from terrestrial meteorite collections. In addition, robotic precursor and human exploration missions to NEOs would allow NASA and its international partners to gain operational experience in performing complex tasks (e.g., sample collection, deployment of payloads, retrieval of payloads, etc.) with crew, robots, and spacecraft under microgravity conditions at or near the surface of a small body. This would provide an important synergy between the worldwide Science and Exploration communities, which will be crucial for development of future international deep space exploration architectures and has potential benefits for future exploration of destinations beyond the Earth-Moon system (e.g., Mars).

Abstract

The number of photons received allows radio astronomers to resolve the Universe on timescales of nanoseconds. This has been demonstrated over decades by observations of giant pulses from the Crab Pulsar, why more recently, it has led to the establishment of the new research field of Fast Radio Bursts. The latter were initially discovered in archival data but are now established as a population of radio sources at cosmological distances. While their origin still remains a mystery, they promise to become powerful cosmological tools. This talk will briefly review time domain astronomy in the radio regime, describe some of the latest FRB results, and will also address the challenges. These range from dealing with large amounts of raw data (PB to EB) that need to be processed in real-time with machine learning methods, to delivering reliable triggers for multi-wavelength follow-up at optical and higher frequencies.

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand

Abstract

Astrophysical masers are among of the best tools in studying star formation processes, especially in massive star-forming regions where star formation cores are deeply embedded in a complex gaseous environment. In this talk, I will give examples of such studies where physical conditions (e.g. magnetic fields) as well as kinematics of the regions can be derived from. I will also highlight time-domain studies of masers which help us to understand not only the physics and dynamics of the regions but also maser physics itself. At the end of my talk, I will briefly present the latest development of radio astronomy research in Thailand including the new 40-m Thai National Radio Telescope (TNRT) and its future key science.

Abstract

We are living in a golden era for testing gravitational physics with precision experiments. This talk will present new results using a variety of tests with radio astronomy, ranging from binary pulsars to imaging black holes in the centre of galaxies. These results will be placed in context of other ongoing experiments, such as detecting gravitational wave with ground-based detectors or pulsar timing arrays, before giving an outlook into the future.

Abstract

The dust component of active galactic nuclei (AGN) produces a broad infrared spectral energy distribution (SED), whose power and shape depends on the fraction of the source absorbed, and the geometry of the absorber respectively. This emitting region is expected to be concentrated within the inner ∼5 pc of the AGN which makes almost impossible to image it with the current instruments. The study of the infrared SED by comparison between infrared AGN spectra and predicted models is one of the few ways to infer the properties of the AGN dust. We explore a set of six dusty models of AGN with available SEDs, namely Fritz et al. (2006), Nenkova et al. (2008B), Hoenig & Kishimoto (2010), Siebenmorgen et al. (2015), Stalevski et al. (2016), and Hoenig & Kishimoto (2017). They cover a wide range of morphologies, dust distributions, and compositions.

We explore the discrimination among models and parameter restriction using synthetic spectra (Gonzalez-Martin et al. 2019A), and perform spectral fitting of a sample of 110 AGN with Spitzer/IRS drawn from the Swift/BAT survey (Gonzalez-Martin et al. 2019B). Our conclusion is that most of these models can be discriminated using only mid-infrared spectroscopy as long as the host galaxy contribution is less than 50%. The best model describing the sample is the clumpy disk-wind model by Hoenig & Kishimoto (2017). However, large residuals are shown irrespective of the model used, indicating that AGN dust is more complex than models. We found that the parameter space covered by models is not completely adequate. This talk will give tips for observers and modelers to actually answer the question: how is the dust arrange in AGN? This question will be one of the main subjects of future research using JWST in the AGN field.

Abstract

Since first light in 2004 the 2.0m Liverpool Telescope has been the world’s largest fully robotic telescope. It specialises in time domain astrophysics and has a dedicated instrument suite giving imagining, spectroscopic and polarimetric capabilities. In this seminar I will describe how the robotic operation of the telescope works and give examples of the science accomplished in areas such as gamma ray burst follow-up and supernova classification. I will also present our plans to develop a new 4.0m robotic telescope in collaboration with colleagues at IAC which will deliver faster reaction and increased sensitivity.

Abstract

In this talk, I present a new technique that explores the hypothesis that the structure producing the continuum emission at mid-IR and the reflection component at X-ray are the same. If this is the case, they can be used together to better constrain the physical parameters of the torus. Our technique consists on a simultaneous fitting of Spitzer and NuSTAR spectra using mid-IR and X-ray models available. During this talk, I will also show the first results obtained when applying our technique to the nearby type-2 active nucleus IC 5063. Finally, I will talk about the work that we are currently developing using this technique.